Method of making integrated circuit structure with narrow line widths

ABSTRACT

In a sub-micron line width process, a first layer of polysilicon 13 is patterned into lines 1,2 spaced a predetermined distance. An oxide layer 11 is deposited. A second layer of polysilicon 14 is deposited on the insulating layer. A gate contact 19 or emitter contact 35 is formed from the second polysilicon layer 14. The gate 19 or emitter 35 is spaced from the lines 1,2 a distance approximately equal to the thickness of the second polysilicon layer 14.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to integrated circuits andmethods for manufacturing integrated circuits, in particular to methodsand circuits having narrow line widths of the order of 1 micron or less.

BACKGROUND

Since the invention of integrated circuits, many improvements have beenmade in reducing the size of components of integrated circuits as wellas increasing the speed of those components. At present, it is commonfor integrated circuits to have minimum features with lengths as shortas 1 micron. Sub-micron features are currently in production and willsoon be commonplace.

The size of features on an integrated circuit is highly dependent uponthe apparatus used to fashion such features. Most integrated circuitsare fashioned using an optical lithography apparatus includingprojection aligners and reduction steppers. Projection alignerssimultaneously expose an entire wafer to an optical mask. However, whenusing standard photoresists, the minimum line width of such aligners isabout two microns. In order to achieve smaller geometries of 1 micron orless, the optical lithography tool most often used is an opticalreduction stepper. Such equipment is very expensive and tends toobsolete existing projection aligners. Steppers expose only apredetermined field on a given wafer to an optically reduced mask. Thewafer is then stepped beneath an exposure station so that the field ofexposure may be stepwise repeatedly exposed on the wafer.

A number of techniques have also been proposed for sub-micronlithography including the use of electron beam lithography. However,electron beam lithography is slow and requires expensive electron beamequipment. Another technique is x-ray lithography. However, x-raylithography equipment is also expensive and is still in itsdevelopmental stage. Still another solution relies upon the use of phaseshift masking to achieve narrow lines at reduced expense. However, thereremains an unmet desire for a method that can use a projection alignerwith ordinary photoresist to achieve sub-micron geometries of featuresincluding geometries of 1/2 micron or less.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with this invention, sub-micron geometries areaccomplished using a two level polysilicon method. Using this method,the spacing between first level polysilicon lines and the thickness ofthe second polysilicon level controls the line width of features formedwith the second level of polysilicon material. The approximate spacingbetween first level polysilicon lines is on the order of 2 microns,which is readily obtainable using projection alignment techniques. Asthe deposition and thickness control of polysilicon is a well known andwell regulated technique, it is possible to accurately and preciselycontrol the resulting line width of the second level polysilicon. Thistechnique allows the production of sub-micron widths of criticalcomponents such as MOS and JFET gates and bipolar emitters without theuse of expensive photolithography.

More specifically, a first level of polysilicon is deposited overnoncritical areas such as substrate source and drain regions orextrinsic base regions. The first level of polysilicon can be patternedin accordance with acceptable projection aligner tolerances, e.g. twomicrons spacing between adjacent lines or strips of polysilicon. Thefirst level polysilicon is patterned and provides a contoured surface onthe semiconductor substrate. A second level of polysilicon isconformally deposited over the first level and the second level ofpolysilicon has a controllable thickness. The thickness of the secondlevel of polysilicon in conjunction with the first polysilicon spacingcontrols the width of the gate structure and the width of the emitterstructure which are fashioned from the second level of polysilicon.

In a preferred metal oxide semiconductor process, an oxide is thermallygrown or deposited on top of a first level of polysilicon. Thepolysilicon is then patterned into lines or strips of a predetermineddistance apart, for example, two microns. These lines of polysilicon aredisposed over regions corresponding to the source and drain of an MOStransistor. A gate dielectric is then formed on the section of thesubstrate between the lines of polysilicon and on the sidewall regionsof the polysilicon lines.

A second level of polysilicon is then deposited after the gatedielectric is formed. This second, conformal layer of polysilicon has aprecisely controlled thickness. As the second polysilicon layer becomesthicker, it gradually narrows the space between the two firstpolysilicon lines. As such, a second polysilicon layer having athickness of 0.75 microns will result in a gap approximately 0.5 micronwide, assuming a first polysilicon spacing of 2 microns. After thesecond polysilicon layer is deposited, the gaps in the polysilicon arefilled with a suitable masking material, such as photoresist orspin-on-glass. Techniques such as those described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 939,115, filed Sep. 1, 1992 and assigned to thesame assignee as this application, can be used to eliminate unwantedmasking material from the top surfaces of the second polysilicon level.The second level of polysilicon is then etched, preferablyanisotropically, until the gate dielectric is exposed. After thatetching process, the region masked by the photoresist or spin-on-glasswill be approximately the width of the distance between the lines of thefirst polysilicon layer less two times the thickness of the depositedsecond polysilicon layer. As such, the spacing between oppositesidewalls of a first polysilicon layer is reduced by two times thethickness of a second polysilicon layer.

The foregoing process and technique is adaptable to the manufacture ofNMOS devices, PMOS devices and CMOS devices. It can also be adapted forthe production of JFETs and bipolar transistors. With bipolartransistors, the first level of polysilicon is used to form theextrinsic base. The second level of polysilicon forms the emitter. Thebipolar process disclosed herein is compatible with the MOS process sothat BICMOS devices may be fabricated using the inventive method.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a semiconductor structure having afirst level of conductive material divided into at least two linesspaced apart from each other and covered by an insulating layer.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of FIG. 1 in which a second conductive layerand a resist layer have been applied.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of FIG. 2 after a planarization step.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of FIG. 3 after an etching step and alsoindicates an implantation step.

FIG. 5 shows a structure in a PMOS fabrication process that shows afield oxide formed on the substrate and two lines, comprised of a firstconductive layer and dielectric layer, which overlap the field oxide.

FIG. 6 shows a planar view of the structure shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 shows a structure in a PMOS process corresponding to thestructure of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 shows a structure in a PMOS process corresponding to a stepfollowing the structure indicated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 9 shows a planar view of the structure shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 shows a further step in the PMOS process where lightly dopedsource and drain are formed.

FIG. 11 is a planar view of FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view of a bipolar transistor formed usingthe process shown in FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 13 is a planar view of the structure shown in FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 is a cross sectional view of a PJFET transistor also formed inaccordance with the steps shown in FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 15 is a planar view of the structure shown in FIG. 14.

FIG. 16 is a cross section view of an alternate form of the PJFETtransistor formed in accordance with the steps shown in FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 17 is a planar view of the structure shown in FIG. 16.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The formation of integrated circuits is a process of building devices ina single piece of semiconductor crystal, preferably silicon crystal. Itis a process of building successive layers of insulating, conducting,and semiconducting materials. Each layer is patterned to give a distinctformation in relationship with surrounding and subsequent layers. Thoseskilled in the art will understand that layers are produced andpatterned by using many known techniques.

The following description will refer to FIGS. 1-4. This description willinclude general techniques for carrying out the inventive steps andcreating the inventive structures of this invention. These particulartechniques and structures are applicable to well-known MOS and bipolarcircuit fabrication techniques. As such, those individual techniqueswill be described in more detail later.

With reference to FIG. 1, there is generally shown a semiconductorsubstrate 10. The substrate 10 is preferably of silicon but may be ofany other suitably semiconductive material including gallium arsenide.It is understood that the substrate 10 may have one or more epitaxialupper layers as well as heavily doped buried layers that are not shownin the drawings. Substrate 10 is first prepared by a uniform depositionof a first layer of compatible conductive material 13. In the preferredembodiment, this material comprises polysilicon. A buffer material 12 isnext deposited on top of the polysilicon 13. In the preferred embodimentthis material comprises oxide, which may either be thermally grownand/or deposited. The layers of oxide 12 and polysilicon 13 are thensuitably patterned and etched to form two lines, 1, 2. The lines orstrips 1, 2 are spaced apart a predetermined distance within thetolerance of a projection aligner, e.g. two microns.

The lines 1, 2, and region 8 between the two lines are then covered by asuitable dielectric material 11 which will serve as a gate dielectric.In the preferred embodiment the gate dielectric 11 is oxide with athickness of several hundred angstroms, which is thermally grown and/ordeposited. The resulting structure, shown in FIG. 1 has the thin gatedielectric in the region 8 between the two lines and also in thepolysilicon sidewall regions 6. The top 7 of the polysilicon lines arecoated with the previously formed buffer material 12 and the additionalgate dielectric 11.

Next, a second conductive layer 14, preferably of polysilicon isconformally deposited on the entire substrate 10. This second layer 14has a thickness 5. The second layer 14, due to its conformal nature, hasa spacing 4 between the sidewalls of the second layer 14 that arethemselves disposed between sidewalls of the first layer 13. The spacing4 is a function of the thickness 5 of layer 14 and the spacing of lines1,2. A further layer 15 of suitable resist material, such as photoresistor spin-on-glass, is uniformly applied to the surface of the substrate.Thereafter, as better shown in FIG. 3, the resist layer 15 is planarizedto expose the upper surface of the second polysilicon layer 14.

After planarization, the remaining plugs 15 of resist material form anetchant mask over the area beneath plugs 15. The polysilicon of layer 14that is not directly beneath a plug 15 is etched away and removed toyield the structure shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the two linesof first level of polysilicon, 1, 2 are spaced apart and a relativelythin line 14 of the second level polysilicon material is disposedbetween the lines 1, 2 of the first level of polysilicon 13. At thispoint, depending upon the process involved, an implantation step willdrive an implant 16 into the regions of the substrate 10 disposed oneither side of the polysilicon structure 14.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the second levelpolysilicon structure 14 can be used to form a gate electrode of an MOSdevice. Likewise, the structure 14 may be used to form the emitter of abipolar device. And, in an integrated circuit having both MOS andbipolar transistors, the second level structure 14 will form the gate inthe MOS devices and the emitter in the bipolar devices.

Those skilled in the art will also recognize that the first levelpolysilicon 13 may be formed of suitably doped material. Alternatively,the polysilicon 13 may be undoped and implanted. In either case, thepolysilicon 13 can be used as a source of dopant for changing theconductivity in the region of the substrate 10 underneath the lines 1, 2of the first polysilicon layer 13. In this manner, one may use the lines1, 2 of the first polysilicon layer 13 to form source and drain ordiffusions for MOS devices and form extrinsic base regions for bipolardevices. Those skilled in the art will also recognize, for bipolardevices, the thin gate oxide 11 beneath the second level polysiliconlevel 14 may be removed in order to form an emitter in an intrinsic baseregion.

MOS FABRICATION

According to FIGS. 5 and 6, there is more particularly shown a structure20 adapted for MOS device fabrication, in particular, a PMOS device. Thesubstrate 10 comprises a lightly n-doped silicon. A field oxidation orisolation oxidation 17 will divide or isolate the structure 20 fromadjacent devices. Polysilicon 13 is deposited via chemical vapordeposition and the buffer material 12, preferably oxide, is thermallygrown and/or deposited. Layers 13 and 12 are then patterned into lines1, 2. The area 25 is noted as the active area. It will be seen that thelines 1, 2 overlap the active area 25. In the preferred embodiment, thelines 1, 2 comprise heavily doped p-type polysilicon. Doped polysilicon13 may be deposited on the substrate 10 or undoped polysilicon may beimplanted with suitable dopant, e.g., boron for p-type doping or arsenicfor n-type doping.

With reference to FIG. 7, the MOS structure is shown at a further stepin fabrication. There, the substrate 10 has been subjected to a heatingstep sufficient to cause the p-type dopant to diffuse from thepolysilicon lines 1, 2 into substrate 10 and establish source and drainregions 18, 28. The second level polysilicon 14 has been deposited viachemical vapor deposition and the resist plugs 14 have been formed fromthe deposited resist and planarization. The second level polysilicon 14is also heavily doped, either p-type or n-type.

The MOS structure 20, in particular a PMOS device is shown in FIG. 8.There, a gate 24, formed from the second polysilicon level 14 issuitable for controlling the transit of holes from source region 18 todrain 28. A planar view, shown in FIG. 9 indicates that, if desired, awider portion of the gate may be formed to provide a gate contact region21. Such a larger region is desirable for metalization, a later step inthe process. The method for forming the gate contact region 21 and othernon-gate regions from the second polysilicon layer 14 is to utilize aphotoresist masking layer with the appropriate geometry after theformation of the plugs 15 of resist material and prior to the etching oflayer 14. Unwanted areas of the second polysilicon layer 14 which remainafter etching, such as the so-called stringers 26, may be suitablyremoved using a second photoresist masking layer with the appropriategeometry protecting the previously formed gate 19 and gate contactregion 21. It is also possible that the stringers 26 might, undercertain circumstances, remain on the device so long as they do notinterfere with the electrical characteristics of the device itself or ofadjoining devices.

Given the tight geometries of the MOS device, it is often desirable tolightly dope the drain portions of such device. As shown in FIGS. 10, 11the gate 24 provides a suitable mask for the step of lightly doping thedrains via ion implantation to provide lightly doped drain regions 22.Such implantation may occur directly through the thin gate oxide layer11. The polysilicon gate 24 will absorb the implants and prevent themfrom shorting out the channel underneath the gate. Those skilled in theart will also appreciate that, if desired, the sources and drains mayalso be silicided to increase the conductivity of the device in FIG. 10.

BIPOLAR FABRICATION

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing structuresand steps illustrated in FIGS. 1-11 are compatible with the formation ofa bipolar transistor. A typical, bipolar transistor 30 is shown in FIG.12. The NPN transistor 30 has a suitable buried or diffusion-under-field(DUF) layer and collector contact, not shown. The NPN transistor 30 hasa polysilicon emitter 35. Emitter 35 is implanted with n-type material,e.g., arsenic which will out diffuse into the substrate 10 and form anemitter region 31. One difference between the NPN transistor 30 of FIG.12 and the prior MOS structures 20 is that the thin gate oxide layer 11on the substrate has been removed. This removal occurs prior to thedeposition of polysilicon layer 14. In addition, suitable sidewall oxidespacers 36 have been provided on the lines of polysilicon 1, 2 in orderto insulate those lines. The polysilicon lines 1, 2 contain heavilydoped p-type material that is suitably diffused out of the polysiliconlayer 13 in order to form the extrinsic heavily doped p+ base region 33.The intrinsic lightly doped base region 32 is suitably formed by ionimplantation, preferably prior to the deposition of polysilicon layer 14and before or after the formation of the gate dielectric 11.

JFET FABRICATION

The cross section of the NPN transistor 30 is substantially identical tothe cross section of a PJFET transistor 40 shown in FIG. 14. For thePJFET transistor 40, however, the polysilicon lines 1, 2 form the sourceand drain contact regions, respectively. Out diffusion of N-type dopant41 from the polysilicon gate 45 forms the top gate of the structure. Thechannel 42 of the device is formed from the intrinsic base implant. Thebottom gate of the structure is formed from the substrate 10 which is alightly doped N-type epitaxial layer deposited on top of a heavily dopedN-type buried layer 44. The planar view of the PJFET from FIG. 14 isshown in FIG. 15. This view indicates that the polysilicon gate 45 formsthe top gate contact 48 or the bottom gate contact 47 depending on thelocation of the intrinsic base implant 49 which is used to form thechannel 42 of the PJFET device. An alternate form of the PJFET, 50, isshown in cross section in FIG. 16. In this form of the PJFET,polysilicon lines 1, 2 form source and drain contact regions to alightly doped P-type region 52 which may be epitaxially grown on top ofa heavily doped N-type buried layer 54 which serves as the bottom gate.Out diffusion of N-type dopant from the polysilicon gate 55 forms thetop gate region 51 between polysilicon lines 1, 2 and also forms acontact to the bottom gate 54 via the deep N+ region 56. A planar viewof the PJFET 50 is shown in FIG. 17. This view indicates that thepolysilicon gate 55 forms the top gate contact 58 in the region betweenthe polysilicon lines 1, 2 and forms the bottom gate contact in theregion 57 outside the polysilicon lines 1, 2. It is also possible toform the channel region 52 by ion implantation. In this case, the region52 would correspond to a PNP collector implant (in a BICMOS process) andthe structure of the PJFET 50 would correspond to the structure of thePJFET 40 assuming that the channel region 52 implant is suitably maskedin a manner similar to the intrinsic base implant 49.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above examples forPMOS, NPN and PJFET structures can easily correspond to NMOS, PNP andNJFET structures, respectively, with the appropriate substitution ofN-type for P-type regions and P-type for N-type regions. Those skilledin the art will also appreciate that the above described invention canbe practice with semiconductor materials other than silicon, includinggermanium and compound material such as gallium-arsenide.

The above invention has several technical advantages. One advantage isthat the gate (emitter) is self-aligned with the source and drains(base). As such, the formation of lines of polysilicon 1, 2 in theinitial step both locates and helps from the ultimate gate region and/oremitter region. Another advantage of this invention is that there is noparticular need for barrier metals such as silicide or tungsten. Stillanother advantage of the disclosed method and apparatus is that bothgates and emitters can be formed having relatively narrow dimensions.This ability to form narrow dimensions for gates and emitterssubstantially increases the overall speed of the electrical devices thatare formed in the substrate 10.

Having thus described the preferred embodiment of the invention, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that further modifications, additionsand changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What we claim is:
 1. A method for producing one or more lines of narrowwidth on a substrate comprising the steps of:providing a substrate ofsemiconductor material; depositing a first layer of conductive materialof a first thickness on and contacting said semiconductor material;removing a portion of said first layer to establish first and secondlines of said first conductive material, said lines adjacent each otherand spaced a first distance apart to define a first region between thefirst and second lines horizontally and between the semiconductorsubstrate and upper surfaces of the first and second lines verticallyhas been inserted; covering the first and second lines with insulatingmaterial; providing a second layer of conductive material of a secondthickness over the resulting structure of first and second lines ofconductive material and insulating material; selectively removingportions of the second layer of conductive material to form a third lineof conductive material disposed between said first and second lines ofconductive material, in the first region, and spaced from each of saidfirst and second lines a distance equal to or greater than the secondthickness of the second layer.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the twolines of the first conductive layer are spaced more than one micronapart and the thickness of the second conductive layer is less than onemicron.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the stepsofproviding a masking layer of a width in said region between the linesof first conductive material; etching the second layer of conductivematerial beneath the masking layer to selectively remove portions ofsaid second conductive layer.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein thesubstrate comprises silicon and the insulating layer comprises silicondioxide.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the silicon dioxide layer is athermal oxidation layer.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the conductivelayers comprise polysilicon.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein themasking layer comprises photoresist.
 8. The method of claim 3 whereinthe masking layer comprises spin-on-glass.
 9. A method for providingnarrow conductive lines on a semiconductive substratecomprising;providing a substrate of silicon; depositing a first layer ofpolysilicon of a first thickness contacting said silicon substrate;etching the first layer of polysilicon to expose regions of thesubstrate and to define raised sidewalls of polysilicon that are spacedapart a first distance, to provide a contoured surface and define afirst region between the first and second lines horizontally and betweenthe semiconductor substrate and upper surfaces of the first and secondlines vertically; covering the polysilicon with silicon dioxide to forma contoured surface; depositing a second layer of polysilicon of asecond thickness and conforming to contours of the contoured surface;patterning said second layer of polysilicon to define a structure ofsecond layer polysilicon having a pair of sidewalls with each sidewallof said structure adjacent a sidewall of said first layer of polysiliconand spaced from said sidewall of said first layer a distance equal to orgreater than the second thickness of the second layer, with at least aportion of the structure of second layer polysilicon located in thefirst region.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the raised sidewalls ofthe first polysilicon layer are spaced more than one micron apart andthe thickness of the second layer of polysilicon is less than onemicron.
 11. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps ofproviding a masking layer between the sidewalls of the second layer ofpolysilicon and removing unmasked portions of the second layer.
 12. Themethod of claim 11 wherein the masking layer comprises photoresist. 13.The method of claim 9 wherein portions of the second layer ofpolysilicon are removed by etching.
 14. The method of claim 13 whereinthe step of etching is accomplished by plasma etch back.
 15. The methodof claim 11 wherein the masking layer is formed with spin-on-glass. 16.A method for producing semiconductor devices having structural featureswith narrow widths comprising:providing a substrate of semiconductormaterial; depositing a first layer of conductive material over andcontacting said semiconductor material; removing a portion of said firstlayer in order to define a first region of a width bounded on oppositeends by adjacent sidewalls of the first layer; forming a line ofconductive material between said adjacent sidewalls of said first layerand in said first region, said line having a second thickness and spacedfrom each adjacent sidewall of the first layer by a distance equal to orgreater than said second thickness.
 17. The method of claim 16 furthercomprising the step of providing at least one insulating layer betweenthe first layer and the line.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein one ofsaid insulating layers is a gate oxide layer.
 19. The method of claim 17wherein one of said insulating layers is a sidewall spacer layerdeposited on said adjacent side walls of said first conductive layer.20. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of removing theinsulating material from the surface of the substrate before providingthe second layer of conductive material.
 21. The method of claim 1wherein the resulting structure has surfaces parallel to the substrateand surfaces transverse to the substrate and the insulating material isthicker on the surfaces parallel to the substrate than is the insulatingmaterial on the surfaces transverse to the substrate.
 22. The method ofclaim 9 further comprising the step of removing the silicon dioxide fromthe surface of the substrate before depositing the second layer ofpolysilicon.
 23. The method of claim 9 wherein the silicon dioxidecovering the sidewall of the first layer of polysilicon is thinner thanthe silicon dioxide covering the rest of the polysilicon.
 24. The methodof claim 16 further comprising the step of covering the resultingstructure with insulating material and removing the insulating materialfrom the portions of the substrate not covered by the first layer ofconductive material.
 25. The method of claim 24 wherein the resultingstructure of the first layer of conductive material has surfacesparallel to the substrate and surfaces transverse to the substrate andthe insulating material is thicker on the surfaces parallel to thesubstrate than is the insulating material on the surfaces transverse tothe substrate.